Gyros style pizza

Gyros style pizza

Do you ever have trouble sleeping at night? Normally I sleep like a baby and I can fall asleep almost instantly. I can easily sleep up to 12 hours at a stretch and do it soundly (not that I ever really have the time to do that). I count this as one of my blessings. 

A couple of years ago, however, I had a bad night. I guess the night before, I slept in a bad position and somehow pinched a nerve in my neck. All day long when I would turn my head or move my left shoulder in a certain way, a sharp pain would travel from my neck all the way down to my finger tips. That kind of thing has happened infrequently in the past and usually lasts a day or two.

The next night, when I went to bed, no matter how I positioned myself, my neck and shoulder were quite painful. I tried sleeping on my side and it was worse. If I laid on my back with my left arm positioned just so, the pain was reduced to a dull ache. When I coughed, the pain became briefly severe. I laid there and would doze off for about ten minutes or so until I would somehow move in my sleep and the pain would wake me up. I would then painfully drift off to sleep for a few more minutes.

Well, this went on for a couple of hours when all of a sudden Squeeky started getting sick. Damn! Now, not just my shoulder, but also Squeeky would wake me up (she got sick several times that night). This continued for a few more hours when Camper also got sick. What the hell! I got up again and cleaned that up and tried to painfully drift off to sleep. I was only able to sleep ten to fifteen minutes at a stretch when either the dogs or my shoulder woke me up. Then at 4:00 AM, Camper had an explosion of diarrhea on the bed next to me! Boy was I upset. By the time I had that cleaned up and the sheets and blankets in the hamper or the washing machine, I realized that by now, I was up for the day. At best, I got maybe two hours of sleep.

By the time I made it home from work that evening, I was beat. In the morning I was so frustrated that I skipped breakfast and then, during the day, I never got time for lunch. When I got home and surveyed my fridge for dinner possibilities. I eventually settled on this unusual pizza.

1 batch of Norman’s pizza dough (or a store bought crust if you must)

3 tomatoes, sliced

1/2 lb. rare roast lamb, sliced thin

1 large onion sliced thin

olive oil

oregano

garlic salt

fresh ground black pepper

1 lb. shredded mozzarella cheese

crushed red pepper

Preparation

Roll out and shape the pizza dough as I have taught you to do in the past. You want at least a 14” oval. Layer the pizza with the tomato slices. Break up the onion slices and distribute them evenly over the pizza. Sprinkle them with oregano and garlic salt. Now add the sliced lamb evenly over the pizza. Sprinkle the lamb with the pepper and some olive oil and then cover everything with the cheese. I was in a bad mood, so I used the whole pound of cheese. You don't have to use it all if you don't want. Finally sprinkle the cheese with some crushed red pepper and oregano.

Bake the pizza at 425º for about 20 minutes or until the cheese is golden brown. When the pizza is done, remove it to the counter and splash extra virgin olive oil over the top of it and let it sit five minutes before slicing.

Serving

Serve this pizza along with a large Greek salad and a good bottle of Greek or Italian red wine.  I found this meal will soothe the fatigue out of you. By your sixth slice, you’ll be feeling a lot better. I know I sure was!